Romania crisis deepens as PM candidate rejected

RECESSION-HIT Romania slipped deeper into political crisis yesterday after opposition leaders angrily rejected president Traian Basescu’s nomination for prime minister.

Mr Basescu ignored opposition party calls to name as the new premier Klaus Johannis, the well regarded mayor of the Transylvanian city of Sibiu, in favour of Romanian central bank adviser Lucian Croitoru. “Croitoru fits the post of prime minister as an independent, and now he has the mission to form a government as soon as possible,” said Mr Basescu, adding that his nominee’s four years of experience working at the International Monetary Fund made him an ideal candidate.

The economic crisis ended several years of rapid growth and ushered in a deep recession, forcing Bucharest to take a €20 billion loan from the IMF in return for promises to push through unpopular cuts.

Analysts warn that the political impasse, and the vote-hunting of politicians ahead of the November 22nd presidential elections, could jeopardise those reforms and possibly payment of the next tranche of the IMF loan in December.

The widely respected Mr Croitoru said his “priorities are to ensure that the presidential elections are properly organised and to keep to our commitments to the IMF, the EU and the World Bank.”

He now has 10 days to form a new government that can secure the approval of parliament, a task that could prove difficult as the two main opposition parties – which have an absolute majority in parliament – have already said they will oppose him.

“[Basescu] named a prime minister who does not have support in parliament and he knows it – this is political blackmail,” said Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana.

National Liberals chief Crin Antonescu pledged that his party “will not give a single vote to the president’s proposal.”